


darling heart, i loved you from the start

by patriciaselina



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angel Wings, Awkward Romance, Cake, Dorks in Love, Drama & Romance, First Dates, Future Fic, Future Fish Au, Ghosts, Glasses, M/M, MakoRei Week, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Ocean, One Shot Collection, POV Third Person, Tags Contain Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-07 17:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1907466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>All he thinks is that this is Makoto, and if he had to make a choice between being <b>with</b> Makoto and being <b>without</b> – there was really never a choice in the first place.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>A series of short disconnected fanfics written for all seven days of <a href="http://makoreiweek.tumblr.com">Makorei Week</a>. Cross-posted from my <a href="http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week">tumblr</a>.</p><p>7.6 - angel -- "tell me your wish", based on the CLAMP manga <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(manga)">Wish</a><br/>7.7 - sweet tooth-- "dessert thieves", based on the Friends episode <a href="http://www.livesinabox.com/friends/season7/711towcc.htm">The One With All The Cheesecake</a><br/>7.8 - care -- "please look at me and smile", based on my angst fic <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1784572">Dream an Endless Dream</a><br/>7.9 - water -- "only fools rush in"<br/>7.10 - free (do as you want) -- "five centimeters per second"<br/>7.11 - in the dark -- "you're like the sun", based the Koreanovela <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master's_Sun">Master's Sun</a>.<br/>7.12 - glasses -- "shopping spree"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "angel": tell me your wish

> **[makorei week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week)**  |  _7.6.angel_  |  ** _tell me your wish_**
> 
> _Makoto’s heard of too much stories of men stealing angel wings to bind and wed them, and he knows none of them ever end up nicely._

Based off a rather old CLAMP manga –  _Wish_ , about the cute peppy angel Kohaku who gets helped by the serious older doctor who doesn’t really have anything he wants to wish for. Since this is MakoRei, the personalities are switched, and our doctor is a hell of a lot more awkward…

And yes, I did just title this after an SNSD song. I’m kind of on a K-pop phase (but then again, when have I _never_ been on a K-pop phase!?)

.

.

.

.

The truth is, though, Makoto never thought he’d have anything he wanted to wish for.

He’s not insanely  _rich_  like Rin with his Olympic stints, or insanely  _content_  like Haru with his job that involves him being 95% in water, but Makoto got his younger siblings through school and he sent his parents on a second honeymoon and, as a pediatrician, he’s made a lot of kids and parents happy with his work. Makoto’s also got a cozy little house of his own with a nice backyard and three stray cats and it’s all he could’ve asked for, had he known to ask for something.

Which is why, when the person –  _angel_ , right, as if those large outstretched wings left any room for doubt – when the  _angel_  looks up at him and asks what he would like to wish for, his throat freezes up because he just doesn’t know.

– his throat also freezes up because...well, Makoto never really thought about what angels would look like. But after looking at the stranger – their long lashes and high cheekbones, pale skin and unsmiling lips, eyes more vibrant than a thousand and one stars – when they say they’re an angel, there’s nothing left for Makoto to do but agree.

“That’s unfortunate,” the angel says, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “You  _do_  know that so long as you can’t come up with a wish for me to grant, I am effectively indebted to you and as such cannot leave your side, right?”

The idea of the angel never leaving is...surprisingly  _tempting_ , and Makoto can feel his heart make a silly little happy dance in response, but it’s been  _ten minutes_  since Makoto caught the angel as he plummeted down the sky with a shrill scream and an injured wing, and even in his half-dazed state Makoto knows that’s asking for too much.

And – and Makoto’s heard of too much stories of men stealing angel wings to bind and wed them, and he knows none of them ever end up nicely.

“I’m sorry! I just can’t think of anything right now, I’m not doing this on purpose.”  _Well_ , he thinks, swallowing as the angel peers at him from underneath thick lashes, his lips slightly parted  _just **so**_ ,  _maybe I **am** , a little_.

“I guess it cannot be helped, then.” the angel says, sighing, tucking his wings in behind him, now looking more like a normal attractive young college student than the otherworldly being he really is. “In the meantime, I shall be staying up this tree, so as to not bother you.”

He’s about to do just that, but Makoto grabs him by the wrist before he could do so much as turn away. “Wait,” Makoto says, calmly, trying not to be distracted by thoughts about how  _warm_  the angel’s skin is under his touch, “Why don’t you just stay here? With me?”

It’s when the angel’s cheeks turn vivid electric red that Makoto almost wishes he could take his words back. But only almost. “ _P-Pardon me_!?”

“That – that’s  _not_  my wish!” Though it  _might_  be, it  _could_  be, in time, and Makoto’s not quite sure what he’s supposed to think about that. “I just think that maybe you’d be more comfy staying in my  _room_  – I mean, my  _spare_  room, instead of up a tree.”

The flush on Makoto’s cheeks feels like a deathly embarrassing one, almost enough to rival the angel’s in color, but not in beauty, and it only intensifies further when the angel shifts to encircle both of Makoto’s wrists with his slim, pale hands. “Thank you for your kindness. I shall appreciate that offer very much.”

“Um...yeah.” Makoto trails off, lamely, his heart getting lodged somewhere in between his throat and his ears, for all the good it’s doing him right now. “Make yourself at home...but first, can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“Your  _name_ ,” Makoto mumbles, looking and sounding for all the world like the lovesick teenager he is ten years too old to act like. “If we’re gonna be living –  _staying_! – together, I’d at least wanna know your name.”

The angel flushes brighter, bites his lower lip, and deftly looks away. Makoto’s heart coils into itself, like a burrowing and slightly suicidal snake.

“It’s fine if that could count as my wish,” Though a more selfish part of Makoto wishes it doesn’t, for he doesn’t want this angel to go back ( _forever_ ) immediately after he just met him. That’d be too much of a waste, he thinks, and tries not to think of the reason why he thought that, and how his pulse is embarrassingly quick under the angel’s hands. “I just think that it’d be nice to call you something other than ‘ _angel_ ’. Even if you really are one.”

“ _Rei_ ,” the angel murmurs, and there’s a quiet majesty to him, even with his pink cheeks and his messy hair, something that Makoto doesn’t think he would want to ever look away from. “My name is Rei.”

“It’s a beautiful name,”  _And it suits you **perfectly**_ , Makoto adds quietly to himself, but doesn’t say because after the injured wing and the leaves in his robes the angel –  _Rei_ , he could call him Rei and that would  _not_  be creepy  _at all_! – would think Makoto were making a mockery of him.

So Makoto just smiles, tries to ignore how his heart beats when he takes Rei’s hands in his own, pulling him to his feet and towards the house, and says, “It’s nice to meet you, Rei. You can call me Makoto.”

“Sorry for intruding,” Rei says, quietly, almost bashfully, as Makoto helps him up the steps, “Makoto-san.”

There are no words for the party Makoto’s heart suddenly decides to throw at that moment.


	2. "sweet tooth": dessert thieves

> [**makorei week**](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week) |  _7.7.sweet tooth_  |  ** _dessert thieves_**
> 
> _Rei conveniently does not tell him about the many times he’d seen Makoto walk across the apartment lobby before, with a cheerful smile and a body that could save the world._

Very loosely based off a  _Friends_  episode, where Chandler and Rachel swipe, eat, and eventually get obsessed with a series of cheesecakes that get sent to their apartment by mistake. The title comes from there, too. (Transcript of this episode can be read [here](http://www.livesinabox.com/friends/season7/711towcc.htm)! It's  _The One With All The Cheesecake_.) Also based on the Future Fish AU.

.

.

.

.

“Nagisa,  _no_.”

“I am  _not_  gonna hear you ‘til the words you say are ‘ _Nagisa, **yes**_ ’.” Nagisa says, lifting a large paper box off their doormat and onto their dining table. “‘Sides, it’s smack-dab in the middle of our doormat.  _Our_  doormat,  _our_  property. It’s pretty much ours.”

“It’s also got  _neither_  of our names on the label,” Makoto deadpans. The name on the label reads ‘ _Rei Ryugazaki_ ’ – a beautiful name, Makoto thinks, sounds like someone who’d be pissed that Nagisa keeps wolfing down their cakes. (Is this a girl’s name, or a boy’s? Nagisa and Makoto are both boys with girly names, so Makoto can’t be too sure.) “So it’s also pretty much  _stealing_ , Nagisa!”

“ _Shucks_ , Mako. It’s been  _three weeks_  and still the cheesecakes keep coming in. If the person who these cakes really were for  _really_  wanted to have them, they’d have gone looking for them by now, wouldn’t they?”

“But  _Nagisa_  –”

Makoto doesn’t even get to finish his sentence – Nagisa had shoved a hefty spoonful of blueberry cheesecake in his mouth.

“Whaddya think, Mako-chan?”

“...”

To call this ‘ _heavenly_ ’ would be an understatement.

“See, see, Mako-chan? It’s delicious, isn’t it?  _Totally_  delicious!”

“Uh...yeah, I guess...”

“So, d’you think these cakes should be left to rot in front of our doorstep just ‘cuz they aren’t ours, or they should be eaten by people who actually appreciate good sweets?”

“I...well...but  _Nagisa_...”

Nagisa gets their largest knife, slices cleanly in between the cake to split it in two, and dumps one half into a plate he gives Makoto.

“Live a little, Mako-chan!” Nagisa says, patting Makoto on the back as he looks at the cake with a mixture of yearning and guilt.

The cake tastes like  _heaven_ , and still Makoto thinks, can’t help but think, if this  _Rei_  were here, would they have loved this too?

.

.

It’s been six weeks and still the cakes keep coming in. When the sixth is delivered, Nagisa’s at work. (“We’re gonna go in space next month! I’ll bring home a shooting star for you, Mako-chan…or maybe a cute alien?” “Nagisa, please don’t.”) Makoto’s shift isn’t until tonight, and Makoto’s about to sink his fork into the red velvet cheesecake like he always does, splitting the cake between them fifty-fifty, but -

His eyes catch on the name whose kanji he embarrassingly knows by heart by now.  _Rei Ryugazaki_. Would they like these cakes too? Or would they  _not_  like them, like Nagisa said they would, though Makoto can’t seem to imagine someone not liking cake this good.

Guess there’s only one way to find out.

It’s easy to see how they could’ve mistaken the apartment numbers – Rei Ryugazaki lives in 702, Makoto and Nagisa live in 202. With that piece of dirt or ink or something that  _always_  gets smudged onto the lower part of the seven, it kinda looks like a two.

“Nagisa’s gonna kill me,” Makoto mumbles, cake box in his hands and footfalls echoing in the empty hallway. Rei Ryugazaki  _better_  like this, or all Makoto’s effort would’ve been for nothing.

There it is, 702. Makoto trembles. He’s never been so afraid of a number im his entire life.

(Actually, he has. He’s never been particularly good at math.)

The plan had been simple. Put the cake on Rei’s doormat – where it should have been in the first place – ring the doorbell, and run as if the apocalypse was upon him. It was simple,  _extremely_  simple, and so of course life decides it wants to throw in a plot twist.

Because just when Makoto’s about to ring the doorbell, the door opens, showing an attractive dark-haired man who obviously wasn’t expecting him.

“May I help you?” The man asks, with a quizzical look. He’s got on a pair of red-framed glasses and a rather... _flattering_  set of exercise clothes.  _Short_  exercise clothes. Showing muscle, and legs that go on  _forever_.

Makoto’s got a hand to his chest and is trying very hard not to look like a psycho killer, but from the way the man flinches away from his toothy smile he seems to have failed in that respect.

“Ah, well, actually,” How does one rephrase ‘ _I’m sorry my roommate and I keep eating all your cakes for five weeks now, and also that I think you’re **really**  hot_’ and not have him call security? “This is yours, isn’t it?”

“That’s strange,” Rei frowns as Makoto hands him the cake box, and Makoto’s heart plummets in his chest. He  _doesn’t_  like cake – Nagisa’s  _really_  gonna kill Makoto. “I don’t remember ordering cake –  _huh_.”

Rei is looking at the label as if it held the answers to the universe, and Makoto wants to tell him it doesn’t, ‘cuz he used to do that a lot and still it didn’t warn him about the fact that his heart would combust upon laying eyes on Rei Ryugazaki.

“Oh. Well. Okay.” Rei babbles, and flushes red from his high cheekbones all the way to the tips of his ears. “Um. Well.”

“Are you all right...?”

“Never been better,” Rei snaps, suddenly, cheeks still endearingly pink. Makoto wants to ask him why, but that would probably be overstepping boundaries. “Makoto-san, right?”

“How did you know-”

“It’s written on your shirt,” Rei says, and conveniently does not tell him about the many times he’d seen Makoto walk across the apartment lobby before, with a cheerful smile and a body that could save the world. That’d be too embarrassing. That this elder brother knows of this fascination is embarrassing enough –  _oh_.

Well then. Guess there’s nothing Rei could do but make the most of this.

“Thank you for bringing the cake to me, Makoto-san.” Rei says, willing his voice to remain smooth and his breathing to become even. “As a token of my gratitude, please allow me to invite you in for coffee.”

“Oh, Ryugazaki-san, there’s really no need...”

“But I insist,” Rei says, opening his apartment door wider, cake box in his hands and a shy smile on his face. “And  _please_ , call me Rei.”

.

.

The label had been a dead giveaway.  _Spring Bakery_  – the boss had always found it funny that the reading for ‘spring’ and the first syllables of their pastry chef’s name matched so perfectly.

“This is Haru.”

“ _Haru-nii_!!” Rei screeches, perfectly content in the soundproofing of his bedroom. With a roommate like Rin who keeps blasting heavy metal at odd hours in the morning, getting soundproofing was pretty much a given. “You – you did this  _on purpose_ , didn’t you!?”

It’s a testament to how much Rei knows Haru, that he even hears the one-armed shrug in his tone. “So you’ve seen him, then.”

“ _Seen_  him,  _talked to_ him...am going to meet him tomorrow for  _dinner_ , even.”

“Then I can’t see why you’d be complaining.”

“But still...but  _why_?”

“Rei, I love you, but if you think I am just going to lie here unmoving while my little brother sighs over some fireman who doesn’t even know his name, then you have got to rethink your assumptions.”

“ _Haru-nii_! And I was most decidedly  _not_  sighing.”

“You most decidedly  _were_. Your annoying roommate can vouch for me on this. Tell me how your date goes tomorrow.”

“Haru- _nii_ , it’s not a date!”

“But it  _is_. My little brother’s growing up. I am proud. You’re moving faster than Rin does with that guy he likes...Wait, I want to text Rin about this. Rub it in his face a little.”

“What – no – Haru- _nii_ ,  _don’t tell Rin-san_!”

“Too late. Just did.”

Rin comes barging into Rei’s bedroom ten seconds after, yelling and sobbing about how  _proud_  he is that his little dork prince finally manned up and got a date with the hot guy he liked a lot and used to avoid like the plague, and somewhere in between the vice grip of the hug Rin gives him, and the quiet laughter he hears Haru make on the phone, Rei begins to doubt that this is really his life.

 


	3. "care": please look at me and smile.

> **[makorei week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week)**  |  _7.8.care_  |  ** _please look at me and smile._**
> 
> _Rei had almost been another person Makoto lost to the ocean, and Makoto knows deep within the marrow of his bones that he could never lie to Rei, not now, not ever._

If you’ve read my angsty Reigisa fic [ _Dream an Endless Dream_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1784572), then you know that it’s actually a MakoRei fic in disguise. (If you haven’t – well, here’s a spoiler alert too late.) So this is the  _slightly_  less angsty MakoRei side of it. Like the original, this is titled after lyrics in Taeyang’s [Wedding Dress](http://kpopgod.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/wedding-dress-taeyang-lyrics-romanized-english-hangul/).

.

.

Rei  _isn’t_  Makoto’s first love.

His first love is a young boy with dark hair and graceful limbs and eyes blue as the ocean, and he doesn’t love him back, not in that way at least, but it’s okay. It’s okay because no matter what happens Haru is always going to be a part of Makoto’s family, and he will always be a part of Haru’s, in turn. But this is not why Makoto falls for Rei.

Makoto falls for Rei because, one night, when they were having beach barbecue in celebration of Makoto’s move to Tokyo, while everyone else were eating and chatting and splashing around in the water, Rei had sat next to him and asked, “Makoto- _senpai_ , are you all right?”

It’s a simple question, but Makoto remembers how he had blinked once, thrice, a hundred times, and still couldn’t find the words to reply, because this is  _Rei_ , who had almost been another person Makoto lost to the ocean, and Makoto knows deep within the marrow of his bones that he could never lie to Rei, not now, not  _ever_. Not when he had seen the way that Rei’s eyes had scrunched shut as he went under; not when Rei had seen the way his body froze solid as the waves attempted to swallow them whole.

Rei pressed a canned drink to his trembling hand – warm, probably the milk tea Nagisa bought in droves or the barley tea Rei adores so much – and sighed. “It’s all right if you aren’t. I feel the same way, too.”

“Huh?” Makoto had said, numbly, watching as Rei hugged his knees to his chest.

“About the ocean, I mean.” Rei murmured, in a small voice that made Makoto overcome with a strong urge to bundle him up in an embrace, only that’d be awkward and  _way_  too unhelpful especially as Makoto’s heart had been pounding way too quickly for Rei  _not_  to notice it. “I’m still not okay with it.”

Rei’s the most put-together person he knows, but it’s in the little moments like this that Makoto realizes that Rei’s a year younger than him and really isn’t as put-together as he’d like others to believe.

“Yeah, I guess I’m not, either.” Makoto looked down at the can in his hands –  _barley tea_. It’s Rei’s favourite, and as far as Makoto knows due to Nagisa’s executive vending-machine decisions this is the only can of not-sugar-sweet-milk-tea they have. “Eh, Rei, isn’t this yours?”

“I thought you might need it more than I do,” Rei said, cracking open his can of milk tea with one hand. It’s something both the Matsuoka siblings do all the time, but when  _Rei_  does it Makoto’s throat goes dry and his already-frantic heart goes so fast it might break F1 records. What on earth is happening to him? “Go ahead, Makoto- _senpai_. Drink up.”

Makoto opened his own can with fingers that shake for reasons less related to the ocean waves lapping at their laughing friends’ feet, and more related to the way Rei’s Adam’s apple bobs as he drinks. This should probably have been the time when he realizes it, but as far as love epiphanies go Makoto was pretty sure this should not have been one of them.

So to distract himself Makoto had closed his eyes, and just drinks. Barley tea is warm, earthy, and while it does calm Makoto down there’s a part of him that muses whether or not Rei would like it if Makoto were to kiss him right now because he’d still be able to taste it on his tongue – eww,  _no_ , Makoto, stop that thought right now, that’s  _gross_.

When he opened his eyes Rei had been smiling at him with a smile so soft and warm it seeped into the depths of the thing more religious people would probably call his soul, and though Rei flushed red and turned away quickly, this was where everything falls into place. This had been where Makoto gets the courage to set his can down on the sand, his hand barely brushing Rei’s own, and says, “I’ll miss you, you know.”

“Yes, we shall miss you too, Makoto- _senpai_.” Rei said in reply, and while his cheeks were still a nice shade of red Makoto had the feeling that Rei had not understood the words in the way Makoto had intended them to be. “Haruka- _senpai_  especially, and Rin-san and Nagisa-kun too, and –  _Makoto-senpai!?_ ”

Makoto had intended to wrap an arm around him, because the night is cool and his heart’s still pounding and  _he’s in love with Rei Ryugazaki, why did he realize this now_ , but he finds it funny that merely holding onto his hand gives him the most adorable of adorable red-cheeked responses.

“I was really scared back then, you know,” Makoto said, without preamble, his fingers running aimlessly over the swells of Rei’s knuckles, and this time, despite the vagueness of this  _non sequitur_  statement Rei knew exactly what he meant to say.

“Because it was the ocean?”

“No. Well – I thought it was because of that, but it wasn’t.” Here we go. “I was scared because it was  _you_.”  _And I didn’t want to lose you_ , _even then_ , Makoto thought, but does not say because he has said too much already, he has  _definitely_  said too much.

A beat passed, and two, then three, and then – it feels like an eternity until Rei turned his hand around to face Makoto’s, and squeezed back.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Rei said, and as their friends set off fireworks (Makoto shall remember to berate them for that later), Makoto only saw the way Rei’s eyes reflect the starry night sky, and he had smiled.

Rei isn’t Makoto’s first love.

Makoto knows he isn’t Rei’s first love, either.

But he’s pretty damned sure that they’re going to be each other’s last.


	4. "water": only fools rush in

> **[makorei week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week)**  |  _7.9.water_  |  _ **only fools rush in**_
> 
> _“Dive in with your heart, Makoto.”_
> 
> _“That never makes sense, Haru.”_

Title comes from the song I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (relevant lyrics: “ _take my hand / take my whole life too_ ”) I was going somewhere with this, but idk if I got to show it off as much as I wanted to.

.

.

It’s a sight he’s dreamed about, but never really thought he’d see up close.

“Good work today, Rei.” Makoto says, head tilted and eyes crinkled, his hand reached out like he always does for Haruka, only this time it’s reaching for Rei and is Rei dreaming, yeah, he’s  _definitely_  dreaming, because there is absolutely  _no way_  this is real.

It’s only when Rei sees Makoto’s face fall that Rei realizes he had said this last part out loud. Oh wow. He seems to have bought a one-way ticket all the way to Awkward Prefecture.

“ _Ouch_ , Rei.” Makoto fake-gasps, his hand pulled back to clutch at his heart with feigned pain. (That, if Rei knew anything about what Makoto actually feels right now, isn’t that feigned after all.) “That  _hurts_. Don’t I look like the kind of captain who’d look after all of you?”

“You  _do_ ,” Rei says, prudently not slipping off his damp goggles lest Makoto dissolve into one many-colored blur. Also prudently  _not_  saying that while Makoto is the kind of captain who looks out for his members,  _Haruka_  is the only one who he pulls out of the pool.

That would be saying too much. And Rei knows that he has to stop himself from saying too much, if he wants Makoto not to catch on.

“So you’re not gonna get out of the pool yet?”

“I’ve still got two laps to go, Makoto- _senpai_.”

“Hm. You always work so hard.” Makoto muses, settling down to sit at the edge of the pool, a timer dangling from his other arm. “Go ahead, then. I’ll time you.”

“I – well – all right then,” Rei mumbles, pushing his goggles so they fit more snugly on his face.  Kneading at his face with the heels of his palms to will away the redness on his cheeks. “So long as it’s amenable to you.”

Makoto tries out the word ‘ _amenable_ ’ on his tongue, like he always does when Rei says some obscure word. This happens more times than Makoto could count, and to be honest he finds it endearing.

“Of course I’ll be fine with it, Rei.”

“Well then,” Rei says, turning his back from him, and diving in.

Haru had been looking at Makoto this whole time, and without even looking back Makoto already knows what he wants to say. So Makoto, knowing full well that his cheeks are damningly red by now, sighs, starts the timer, and tells him, “Haru, don’t start.”

“Dive in with your heart, Makoto.”

“That never makes sense, Haru.”

“It’s all because you’ve never been a good listener, Makoto.”

“Just...go swim already, Haru.”

Haru shoots Makoto a half-smile that could almost be called ‘ _cheeky_ ’ before he dives in as well.  _Who are you_ , Makoto thinks,  _and what the **hell**  did you do with my best friend!?_

This is a conversation Rei doesn’t get to hear, however, because he’s currently busy slicing through the water, a smile on his face because he’s swimming, not sinking like the hammer Rin and Nagisa and Haruka always call him, and he has Makoto waiting for him at the finish line.

Makoto. Waiting for  _him_. Not Haruka. The idea is exhilarating.

Despite being the one who almost drowned in Sukishima, who sunk like a rock every time before and after that, Rei’s never been one to think of the water like Makoto does – like it was a menacing beast intent on swallowing him whole. Instead he thinks of it as the thing that bought them all together, as the one that returned the smile to Rin’s face and gave the glow to Haruka’s eyes.

It was the water that gave him a best friend who snuck candies into his shoe locker.

And, of course, it was the water that brought him to Makoto.

How could he ever be anything other than  _grateful_?

“Good work today, Rei.” Makoto tells him, later, after his two laps are done. “And no,” he adds, his smile curling at the corners like Rei’s heart does around his ribcage, “You’re not dreaming.”

“Feels like it, though,” Rei hears himself say, and almost regrets it – but then he gets to see how brilliant Makoto’s face gets when he blushes at that, and so he doesn’t.


	5. "free": five centimeters per second

> **[makorei week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week)**  |  _7.10.free_  |  ** _five centimeters per second_**
> 
> _He was the man who gave up his spot in the relay just so Rin would stop crying; in the face of that, this is nothing._

Between this and the silly Reigisa date fic I’ve got in the works, it seems I can’t ever stop myself from writing sappy silly dates. This is angstier than  _Stand By Me_ , though, and gets its name from a movie related to something Rei says in the middle of this.

Oh well. Hope you like this anyway.

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Makoto  _always_  drags his name out for longer than he should have a right to. Always, without fail. It’s the only time that Rei actually truly remembers his name is spelled out with two kana, and his cheeks  _always_  grow warm at the thought.

“Rei!”

Speaking of which, there he is again, walking his direction with a grace that would’ve made angels cry. “So sorry I kept you waiting so long – the twins were especially antsy, and they didn’t wanna let me go – wait, where’s Haru? And Nagisa?”

 ** _Of course_** _he’d look for Haruka-senpai first_ , Rei thinks, and tries not to let the vitriol in that consume him. He was the man who gave up his spot in the relay just so Rin would stop crying; in the face of that, this is  _nothing_. “I haven’t heard from Haruka- _senpai_...but as far as I know, Nagisa-kun had been held hostage by his sisters.” He fidgets with the hem of his shirt – should he say the next words? Or would Makoto think Rei thinks this a date as a direct consequence and get scared. What the hell. “And no, I was not waiting long.”

Makoto chuckles at the familiar words, and when he reaches out and ruffles Rei’s hair Rei definitely did not scream. Well he did.  _Internally_. He  _does_  have a reputation to uphold. “Don’t  _lie_ , Rei, it doesn’t suit you. I better get you warmed up; it’s the least I can do.”

It’s a good thing that Makoto herds him into a nearby coffee shop immediately after, because Rei keeps thinking of the many ways Makoto could, so to say, ‘ _warm him up_ ’, and some of them are particularly tempting and also would get him public decency charges. And a restraining order. From Makoto himself.  _Damn_.

Telling  _Nagisa_  about his feelings was clearly not the soundest of ideas.

“I really like this place,” Makoto tells him, as he helps himself to his latte. It’s got a foamy rendition of a cute little kitten leaning over the mug, and with its size and overall whiteness it reminds them both of the little cat Makoto sort-of adopted in his second year. “Their lattes are always so good, and they make the best 3D foam kittens. What do you think, Rei?”

Rei had been trying to stop blushing at how Makoto manages to say his name in between every other sentence, but it’s a hard thing to do. “I think you’re right. But it’s a waste – as we drink, the foam loses shape and the painstakingly-crafted kittens melt away into nothing.”

“Yeah, it’s just too bad.”

“It’s just like how they make all those euphemisms about cherry blossoms, how beauty is always fleeting.” Rei says, increasingly engrossed in his words but also increasingly confused as to  _where_  exactly these words are coming from. “But then again, if I were to be given a chance to view fleeting moments of beauty or long drawn-out moments of normalcy...the answer would be  _obvious_.”

There’s an undercurrent of... _something_ , in the look Makoto throws him, but for all his intelligence Rei couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it means. “Hmm. That’s a good point, Rei. I don’t think that everything with beauty in it has to be fleeting, though.”

“Oh?”

“‘Cuz there’s also beauty in family, and  _friendship_ , and  _love_.” Makoto says, fingers tapping idly on the table, and oh wow Rei’s heart is beating in his ears, that is apparently a thing that could be possible. “And those stuff last forever.”

“That...would be the ideal, yes. But reality is different.” Rei says, smiling thinly, cursing his damned mouth why it didn’t just stick with discussing the finer points of marshmallow kittens over latte foam kittens instead. (He likes Makoto a whole damned  _lot_ , okay – so he knows exactly how to spin that topic.) Because this one is too close to home – there Makoto is, sipping coffee and getting foam on his lip, smiling and laughing and talking to him, but come graduation he’d move to Tokyo for college and Rei would go somewhere else and never see him again.

He knows that this is their reality, but still, it  _hurts_.

“It doesn’t always  _have_  to be, Rei,” Makoto says, softly, reverently, his eyes warm and soft like melting honey and sponge cake and all the things Rei never thought he’d ever want to get lost in. He’s about to say something, Rei sees his mouth form around the words, but then, in spectacular fashion, his phone goes off.

Makoto likes heavy metal. This is once again one of the many things about him that Rei never expected to like.

It’s a message, not a phone call; so Makoto lets the song ring out – something about  _rage_ , Rei kinda of lost track of all the growling English – before he checks his phone. “Apparently Haru thought it a good idea to swim in a fountain.”

“...a  _fountain_.”

“Yeah.”

“Some of the snow hasn’t even melted yet.”

“I know, Rei. I saw your cheeks get pink earlier – it’s  _really_  cold out.” Makoto says, and Rei attempts to hide a blush behind a coffee mug; let him think Rei’s extremely sensitive to the cold (he  _isn’t_ ), not fruitlessly, hopelessly, one-sidedly,  _pining_  for Makoto himself.

“But hey, this is Haru.” Makoto sighs, finishing off the dregs of his latte. Rei does the same, almost regretting how quickly the time they spend together has to pass – but he squares his shoulders, wears an uneasy smile, and braces himself because this is something he has to get used to very soon. “Rei? Shall we go?”

“Yes,” Rei says, walking to the door first, fighting back the part of him that wants to cling to Makoto and never let go. “We shall.”

He’s barely opened the door leading outside when he hears Makoto speak from somewhere behind him, closer than Rei’d dare imagine he’d be, his warm breath almost ghosting past his earlobes: “Not  _all_  beautiful things have short shelf lives, Rei.”

Rei gulps, wide-eyed, hands trembling on the door handle. He’s perfectly aware that they’re blocking the cafe entrance, but he doesn’t care – can’t bring himself to care, what with Makoto so warm and large and unbearably close. “Really.”

“Yeah, I mean –” From the other side of the glass door they can see a damp-haired Haru plodding silently down the road like a petulant child with a cup of steaming cocoa and a new set of clothes, and Nagisa waving and jumping around like some new dance craze gone wrong. Makoto waves, but doesn’t step away from Rei, whose heart is close to bursting by now. “Well.”

“ _You’re_  still here, aren’t you, Rei?”

There he is, with the way he drags Rei’s name out into two syllables again, and it’s only when he feels the feather-light sensation of lips graze his temple that he realizes:  _maybe this endeavor isn’t too fruitless after all._


	6. "in the dark": you're like the sun

> [**makorei week**](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week) |  _7.11.in the dark_  |  ** _you’re like the sun_**
> 
> _Maybe Nagisa had been right. Maybe Rei likes making things harder for himself._

I always write Haru and Rei as brothers, so writing them like this for this ficlet is a treat.

Based off my  _Master’s Sun_  AU, where Mako is the cutie who sees ghosts and is scared of them, and Rei is Haru’s bodyguard who likes Mako and is frightened of ghosts too.

Spoiler alert, though! The endgame of that Kdrama, and subsequently of that AU – as you can see in the amazing fic I got as my [makoharufestival](http://tmblr.co/ma6dN6nUwrYho7kWTPPwYog) prize, [ _Only See Me_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1346359) (!!!) – is actually MakoHaru (who correspond to the two main characters of that drama), and another endgame of that AU is Nagirei (the actress who made the female MC her rival, falling for the hot bodyguard), so there’s hints of that in this.

Title comes from some lyrics in [this](http://popgasa.com/2013/09/03/jung-dong-ha-of-boohwal-mystery-masters-sun-ost/#more-9999) song from the OST.

But take note that when I watched that drama I shipped the female MC with the bodyguard, so...yeah. This is how I would’ve wanted it to go. Being a multishipper is hard, guys. And also loads of fun.

Hope you like it!

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“Rei, I – you’ve been a great friend to me, and I can’t thank you enough. But I think it’s time I tell you the truth.”

Rei gulps, and unbuttons his suit jacket so he can sit beside Makoto on the bench. If this is going to be the day Makoto tells him ‘ _Sorry, Rei, I can’t accept your feelings, and neither can Haru which is why you have to say your goodbyes ‘cuz he says you won’t live to see tomorrow_ ’, Rei at least wants to see Makoto’s face as he says it.

Maybe Nagisa had been right.

Maybe Rei likes making things harder for himself.

“I’m listening.”

“I, well, you see,” Makoto takes a deep breath, scrunches his eyes shut, and Rei has to remind himself that leaning in for a kiss would be in spectacularly bad taste. “I –  _I can see ghosts_.”

Makoto’s tone is especially flat and serious as he says this and Rei doesn’t know whether or not this is better or worse than what he’d been expecting.

“And I know that it’s hard to believe, I really do,” he says, chuckling nervously, “But that’s why I work here, actually. Because I  _can_  see ghosts, and  _talk_   _to_  them, and  _help_  them – there’s a lot of ghosts around here in the Nanase’s buildings, so yeah. So Haru got me to help. He also helps me  _not_  see the ghosts, though it’s just temporary – it’s why I keep holding his hand. When I hold Haru’s hand, the ghosts go away.”

Upon hearing the fond, familiar tone with which Makoto refers to Rei’s employer (the same man who had once pulled Rei aside and said “ _If you won’t give up on him, I won’t either_ ”), Rei’s hand clenches, but he hides it in the pocket of his slacks and decides to just listen to Makoto speak.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“I don’t think you’re crazy, Makoto-san. I would  _never_  think that.” Rei says, carefully placing a soft smile to mask his terrified face, “But I  _do_  think that ghosts are beyond the capabilities of logic.”

And Rei also thinks they’re  _scary_. But he’d rather Makoto not know of this – let him know Rei is a total badass who knows his way around guns and knives and fists. Makoto  _already_  knows about what Rei feels for him. That’s already one weakness too much.

“Look, well, here.” Makoto’s pointing to a trash can in the side of the hallway across from them. “There’s this guy who always leans on your nice metal trashcans. He says they feel cool against his skin. I used to be so scared of him, but I’ve spent so much time here, I’d like to think we’ve built a friendship since then.” Makoto stands up, speaks in a voice that would’ve had heads turning had there been people in the hallway other than them, smiles a smile that makes Rei’s heart melt. “Hello there, mister! Can you hear me? Flip the lid twice if you do?”

There’s no wind that blows into the hallway – Nanase structures are built with a minimum amount of open windows for security purposes, Rei knows this – but the trash can lid flips once.

_Twice_.

Rei’s blood runs cold.

Makoto sighs. “I know it’s really farfetched, but...you’ve already done a lot for me. It only seemed right that I let you know.”

“N-no, it’s fine, I believe you.” Even if Rei’s  _definitely_  gonna scream for mother everytime he sees a trash can lid flip now. “I believe you, Makoto-san.”

“That’s good, then.” Makoto says, smiling a relieved smile that makes Rei’s heart do somersaults. “‘Cuz otherwise I didn’t really know how to spin this story – I was gonna ask you if I could stay after office hours, ‘cuz there’s this girl who’s roaming the music hall and I kinda need to speak to her. With all the preparations you guys have been doing for the concerto, I haven’t been able to do so.” He scratches his nape, and Rei knows that the next words he says are embarrassing to him. “Normally I’d have Haru help me, ‘cuz looking around in the dark is scary, but...”

But  _now_  Haruka Nanase’s in that arranged marriage with that rich heiress – Kou, or something? – and no matter which way he looks at it this makes Rei’s blood boil. If Haruka no longer loves Makoto as much as he used to tell Rei he does – why doesn’t he at least join the man he hounded into helping him, who sees  _ghosts_  and is  _afraid_  of the dark? As a  _friend_ , at the very least?

Wasn’t Haruka at the very least still Makoto’s  _friend_?

“I’ll come with you.” Rei says, and doesn’t even think about ghosts or dark rooms or the fact that when Nagisa Hazuki had dragged him into a date, the B-grade horror movie had turned him into a weeping mass of flesh in mere minutes. All he thinks is that this is  _Makoto_ , and if he had to make a choice between being  _with_  Makoto and being  _without_  – there was really never a choice in the first place. “I’ll come with you, so don’t worry.”

“Ehh? Rei? But -”

“I can’t make the ghosts disappear like Nanase-san does.”  _God_   _knows I **want**  to do that_, Rei thinks, bitterly,  _so you would be holding **my**  hand, not his_. “But I can join you.”

_Protect you, if need be,_  Rei thinks, but doesn’t say. Because then Makoto would remember the last time he said that –  _Makoto-san, I’m in love with you, and no matter what you feel for me I shall protect you so long as you call my name_.

Gosh, falling in love has made Rei so  _sappy_.

“I’ll see you tonight, then?”

“Yes, Makoto-san, you will.”  _And if I cling onto you like an overgrown baby_ , Rei thinks,  _please don’t judge me_. “See you tonight.”

Later that night, when Haruka Nanase and his new fiancée see Makoto with his arm around Rei’s shoulder, the two of them laughing like children after a case well done, Rei makes sure to flash his boss the biggest smile he has.

_Eat your heart out, sir._


	7. "glasses": shopping spree

> **[makorei week](http://patriciaselina.tumblr.com/tagged/makorei-week)**  |  _7.12.glasses_  |  ** _shopping spree_**
> 
> _It’s a good thing Rin prefers black, because of all of them Rei is the one who wears red the best  – from the tie of his uniform to the frames of his glasses to the flush of his cheeks._

Based on the matching pair of birthday messages Mako and Rei gave each other last year, as well as the convo their desktop mascots have when dragged next to each other. This is the shortest one out of the bunch, and also the silliest/sappiest – hope you like it, though! Until next time, fellow MakoRei shippers!

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It’s an  _expected_  offer, but not exactly an  _unwelcome_  one.

“It’s nice having you here, Makoto- _senpai_ ,” Rei says, with all the grace of a television show host introducing a guest to his program. Makoto tells him so, if only to see his cheeks flush red.

It’s a good thing Rin prefers black, because of all of them  _Rei_  is the one who wears red the best – from the tie of his uniform to the frames of his glasses to the flush of his cheeks. It was somewhere in between  _noticing_  this and  _dreaming_  about this that Makoto finally felt the need to sob and barge into Haru’s bathroom and scream that he likes Rei, as in like-likes him, and Rei wants to help him pick out frames and he said yes but it’s awkward ‘cuz Makoto kept staring at his  _lips_  the whole damned time and he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

Haru had rolled his eyes, pursed his lips, and said “Then go out with him,” as if it were really that easy, as if Makoto won’t make a fool out of himself and die of embarrassment if he so much as followed through with it. Then Haru had submerged himself into the bathtub water again, like he always did when Makoto was being ‘ _tedious_ ’.

On the other hand, Rin had  _laughed_  at him.  _Obviously_ , Makoto has been blessed with such  _understanding_  friends.

“That pair looks very good on you too, Makoto- _senpai_.”

“Thanks, Rei,” Makoto mumbles. It’s the thirteenth time Rei has said this, and Makoto knows Rei’s just saying this out of politeness but he can’t help it; his cheeks go warm and his heart goes bubbling. “Aren’t you gonna try anything out, as well?”

“Hm? Ah, I’m perfectly fine with my own pair.” Rei says, pushing up his own glasses in a move he does so much Makoto attributes it to muscle memory. “But I shall be looking for a new case later. I was thinking something with a butterfly on it.”

As he slips on the next frames, a soft smile slips onto Makoto’s face and makes Rei’s breath hitch, but Makoto doesn’t notice this. It’s too bad, he  _should’ve_. “That does sound like something you’d like, Rei...What do you think about this one?”

“I  _think_  –”  _That seeing you in **my**  color is a sight to behold_, is how that sentence was supposed to end, but as far as Rei knows he can’t go as far as to claim complete ownership over the color violet, even if it’s almost exactly the shade of Rei’s eyes, because that’s definitely  _not_  the reason why Makoto chose to try them on. (Hint: It  _was_.)

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.

When the words slip out of him, it isn’t in some grand romantic gesture, the kind he only sees in the dramas his mother and Nagisa and Gou hound him into watching, the kind he sees in the romance novels he quietly reads under his multitudes of butterfly-print book covers.

It’s because Makoto had looked so  _lovely_  in that one pair of frames, black and just the right amount of glossy, with tasteful little metal accents that brought out the golden flecks of his green eyes, and instead of saying “ _I love it_ ,” Rei had said “ _I love **you**_.”

“Love you too,” Makoto tells him in reply, without missing a beat, and really there is nothing, nothing else left for Rei to do, but bury his head in his hands and pray fervently for his heart rate to stabilize, because if this carries on he’ll die of heart failure and he doesn’t think Makoto would like that.

.

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“Makoto- _senpai_ , did I…”

“Hear right? Well, yes you did, Rei.”

“So does this mean we’re…”

“Yeah. I guess. Only if you want to, of course.”

“I  _do_  want to.”

“So…guess this was a date, then?”

“Indeed, it was.”

 _And I can’t wait for the next one_ , Rei thinks with a quiet smile, as Makoto’s hand wraps around his and leads him out the shopping mall.

 


End file.
